Montana Senate candidate who shot a stand-in Flock camera in a campaign ad calls for federal limits on surveillance tech

· Business Insider

Seth Bodnar, who is running for US Senate in Montana, called for federal regulation on surveillance tech.

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  • A new campaign ad from Seth Bodnar, an Independent running for US Senate in Montana, targets Flock.
  • Bodnar said he supports federal legislation to address privacy risks posed by Flock.
  • "This isn't an issue that's about left or right," Bodnar said.

Seth Bodnar pulls a shotgun from the back of his truck, lines up his mark on a tree stump with a bag of flour set behind, takes aim, and pulls the trigger.

His target? A Flock camera.

Or a stand-in for one at least. Bodnar, an Independent running for US Senate in Montana, performed the stunt in a new campaign ad shared this week. The veteran and former University of Montana president told Business Insider that Flock cameras are an issue on which voters across the political spectrum can agree.

"This isn't an issue that's about left or right," he said. "This is about individual freedom."

Bodnar said he put out the video because Montanans have told him they don't want a corporation logging every trip they take, whether it's to church, the doctor, the gun store, or a friend's house.

They're not alone. Flock Safety has drawn the ire of Americans across the country, who have taken issue with the company's automated license-plate readers, which are found in thousands of communities in the US.

In addition to privacy concerns, critics have pointed to cases in which the tech has misidentified plates or police have misused the data, like by monitoring an ex. A Business Insider investigation found several cases where police using Flock wrongfully targeted or arrested a person who had not committed a crime.

Flock and police departments have said the technology has been helpful in addressing crime, including vehicle break-ins, and finding missing people. Last month, the company rolled out new guardrails, such as reducing the default retention period for data, in response to the backlash. Some local and state jurisdictions have also responded by cutting their use of Flock.

Call for federal limits on surveillance tech

Bodnar said he supports the bipartisan Flock-Off Act, introduced this month by Reps. Thomas Massie and Eric Burlison, which is intended to cut federal funding used for automated license-plate readers and biometric surveillance cameras.

He thinks the federal government should go further, calling the proposed act a "starting point." While he does not want Flock cameras banned, he said there could be national standards for the technology, such as how long data is stored, restrictions on how the data can be used, required audits, and penalties for misuse. He also said rules should be set for how data collected by private cameras, such as those belonging to retailers rather than law enforcement, can be used.

"We should also close the private camera loophole so police can't use a retailer's camera to do without a warrant what they shouldn't be able to do," he said.

Flock's automated license-plate readers are used by police departments and retail stores across the US.

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Bodnar is running to replace retiring Republican Sen. Steve Daines this November. A Montana Free Press-Rutgers Eagleton poll released last week found Republican Kurt Alme had an 8-point lead over Bodnar, with Democratic and Libertarian candidates trailing further behind.

His new campaign ad went beyond Flock, noting concerns about tech companies buying and selling Americans' data, as well as the development of data centers.

"It's the broader data economy: Big Tech collecting, storing, profiting from information about our lives, that data being stored in the cloud by private companies," he explained, adding that "once it exists, it can be accessed, it can be misused, it can be breached."

Despite taking aim in his ad, Bodnar said he does not support vandalizing or destroying Flock cameras, as some opponents of the technology have done, and that the issue should be addressed at the ballot box.

As for the camera he shoots in the video? A simple decoy, the kind used to deter crime without actually recording anything.

"Respect private property rights. Don't touch cameras that aren't yours," he said.

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